De Blasio is calling governor's congestion plan 'an impossibility'

Mayor Bill de Blasio brushed aside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to charge cars for entering Manhattan as "inconceivable." He laid blame on Republicans in the state Senate—ignoring the role Assembly Democrats played in preventing a congestion pricing plan from advancing under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

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Addressing the press after an unrelated event in Brooklyn on Monday, the mayor dismissed Cuomo's call to fund subway system fixes by tolling traffic in the city's core business zone. The governor declared that the "time has come" for a congestion pricing plan in an interview with The New York Times earlier this month, but failed to elaborate on how his model would differ from the one put forward 10 years ago.

That plan, which would have obliged private cars and commercial vehicles to pay $8 per day and trucks $21 per day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, foundered in Albany amid opposition from Democrats in Westchester and the outer boroughs. The mayor predicted the governor's plan would meet a similar fate—although he argued it would be Long Island GOP legislators who would block it this time.

"So long as this current Republican state Senate leadership is in place, I think it's inconceivable," he said, noting that Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan hails from auto-centric Suffolk County, while several of his party members represent Nassau. "Particularly given the focus that the current Republican leadership in the Senate has on Long Island, I think it's just inconceivable."

The mayor, a former city councilman from Brooklyn, said he opposed his predecessor's congestion pricing proposal as "unfair to the outer boroughs." He said the model advanced by the Move New York coalition, which would "swap" new tolls on the East River bridges for lower fees on spans linking the outer boroughs, an improvement. Still, he alluded vaguely to "a huge number of outstanding issues."

De Blasio allowed that the governor's plan could differ substantially from Bloomberg's, but noted that Cuomo has yet to advance any specific proposals.

"I don't think this is a realistic conversation," he said. "Everything I've ever seen of this Senate says this is an impossibility. Again, maybe the governor's going to put forward a very different type of plan, but I can't prejudge that."

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